Don’t blame me if I kept the champagne on ice last night. The Royals have never really been in danger of hitting the century mark this season. In fact, the Royals will really have to go into the tank if they are to match last season’s total of 65 wins.

For a quick refresher, here are the team winning percentages since Dayton Moore took over:

2007 – .426
2008 – .463
2009 – .401
2010 – .414

For the team to match ’07, they will have to win six of their last ten. Come on, boys! Or something.

— Sean O’Sullivan got the “win” (which if you’re spending any time on the baseball internets these days means he pitched a better game yesterday than Felix Hernandez) but wasn’t exactly sharp. He put the leadoff man on base in five of the seven innings he started and threw a total of 92 pitches in six innings. His final line:

6 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 3 SO

O’Sullivan was bailed out by an inept Indian offense. Philip Humber came on in relief and allowed both of his inherited runners to score. Of course, it would help if Billy Butler could catch a pickoff throw.

— Why did it take 12 days to get Humber some work? Is it any wonder he struggled to find his rhythm? Of course, he’s not that good to begin with, but still…

— If you’re looking for something to do today, head to Royals Prospects and check out some of the videos Greg uploaded from his recent trips to Northwest Arkansas and Burlington. Watching guys like Johnny Giavotella and Eric Hosmer, you can’t help but get excited.

— Minda Haas at Royal Blues had an interesting post where she looked at the Royals win to save ratio and found it to be the highest in the majors this season. I’m not surprised. The Royals have one of the top three closers in the game in Joakim Soria. And they have been involved in 55 one-run games, which is the most in baseball. For awhile, they had the most wins in one-run games, but a late season run of futility has dropped them to fourth – behind the Rays, Twins and Rangers.

— In Dutton’s Friday notes article, he reports the Royals won’t make any changes to their coaching staff with the exception of replacing first base coach Rusty Kuntz who resumed his role as special advisor to the GM for player development. Following GMDM for the duration of his tenure, this doesn’t come as a shock. He values loyalty and continuity on his staff. Obviously, the coaches (particularly the Kevin Seitzer and Bob McClure) haven’t had a ton of talent at their disposal.

Seitzer’s accomplishments this year would include leading the league in total hits and finishing last in strikeouts. Their 84% contact rate (a percentage of swinging strikes that are either fouled off or put in play) is the best in baseball as well. On the negative side of the ledger would be the fact Royal batters see an average of 3.73 pitches per plate appearance, which ranks them 26th and their 7.5% walk rate is 27th.

As for McClure, this year has been kind of a disaster. Kyle Davies and Brian Bannister have been stagnant in their development. Royals pitchers posted a 1.85 SO/BB ratio, second worst rate in baseball, their team ERA of 5.04 is the highest in the AL and the same goes for their ERA+ of 84. Looking for positives there were some minor individual success stories… Luke Hochevar was showing improvement before he missed most of the second half of the season with injury. Kyle Farnsworth improved to the degree GMDM was actually able to get value in a trade. Bruce Chen became a serviceable starter.

We all know the influx of youth will begin next season and will roll into 2012 and beyond. GMDM obviously has confidence in his staff and their ability to work with young players. I’ve seen enough from the pitching and hitting coaches to think they at least deserve a chance. The successes were limited this year because the talent was limited. This is an area where we will simply have to trust The Process.